Yesterday's motorbike ride around Phuket Island

I spent the previous two days in Patong. I'm not going to say much about Patong as the following Wikipedia entry sums it up reasonably accurately, particularly in the 'prostitution', 'gay men' and 'transvestite' sections.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patong

I didn't get any photos, but there are youtube videos which capture pretty much everything I saw.

One of the pluses of visiting Patong (I didn't realise how big a plus it was until she left me to return to work) was that I met a 'bar girl' who agreed to show me around Phuket Island. For the dirt cheap price of $6 NZ motorcycle hire and $4 NZ fuel, we spent hours riding around the island and I got basically the 'beach, temple and market tour'. She made lovely company. Everywhere she took me was free, and pretty stunning. It is only today that we painstakingly in falting english managed to match up where we went yesterday to the Lonely Planet guide book (I was just following along at the time).

She also told me a bit about her life, how she is from Isan province (North East Thailand), grew up farming rice, came to Patong to make money, and sends home 10,000 baht a month to her family (I know it's true I've seen the statements). She also showed me photos on her phone of her family, including her and her daughter, and described how she works for herself (to avoid bar fines), is very worried about contracting HIV (which she says her friends laugh about and don't take it seriously but she takes it very seriously because she is a mother) and how she would really like to stop selling her pussy and go to school to become a hair dresser. She said she was good in school, and communicates well in spoken English and by text, which seems better than most Thai's I have met so far. She also says that if she hadn't gotten pregnant when she was young and then if the father had not left her she wouldn't be in her present situation and would have gone to University. 

Now that she has left to return to work, I'm getting ripped off left right and center as she is no longer involved in the bargaining. I know conventional wisdom and advice from the TAT (Thailand Tourism Board or something) is not to trust local advice, but in hindsight she most certainly saved me money. I invited her to ride a motorbike with me up into Northern Thailand (her as the driver - there's no way I could ride a motorbike in Thailand) but she politely declined, explaining that while hanging around with me is fun and all and gives her something to do during the day-time, it does not pay, so she has to go sell more pussy.

Tomorrow I plan to splurge and go on a commercial tour. It'll be about 12 times the price, and there will be no flexibility in where we go or what we do, but we will visit a few Islands so I am looking forward to that.

Photos are on facebook currently. I'll move them here when I get a better internet connection.